Tonight I watched Part One of an English miniseries called "The Hollow Crown" (2013). With that title you may be guessing that I am still in Shakespeare Mode, and you are guessing right. :) The three part series is comprised of a trio of WS' historical plays, two of which cover the rule of Henry VI, the mild and devoutly religious son of the heroic Henry V, who we just saw in Laurence Olivier's film last week. Shakespeare wrote two plays about Henry VI (the son); those plays are subtitled Part One and Part Two, and they make up the first two parts of "The Hollow Crown", which is subtitled "The War Of The Roses". That war came about because the Duke of York felt that upon Henry V's death, that he was entitled to the throne due to a complicated set of birth relationships that you'd do better to Google.
In a secret meeting, York asked his fellow Dukes and Earls to stand by him in his claim to the throne. Those that agreed were to wear a white rose as their symbol. But the Earl of Somerset does not agree and brings an insincere challenge, claiming that he would not support a usurpation of the teenaged Henry VI, but what he really wants is the crown for himself. During the secret meeting, he plucks a red rose to adorn his chest and asks his fellows to support him. In the end, half of those gathered support the white rosed Duke of York, and half support the red blossomed, treacherous Earl of Somerset. And there you have your setup for the eventual War Of The Roses, a war between two sides of noblemen who want to overthrow the peaceful young Henry for their own power hungry reasons.
Man, this is great stuff!
I confess that I leave the subtitles on when watching Shakespeare on dvd. It helps me to understand the intricacies of the plot without having to rewind and listen to a scene over again, because as with all Shakespeare the words come at you rapidly and in formal Olde English.
But I'm getting good at it, and tonight I was able to follow the dialogue pretty much word for word.
What a show! What oratory! What treachery!
Man, you think politics is horrible now, go back to Merry Olde England, or France, and try those places on for size. Sheesh.......war after war after war. Well anyway, it gave William Shakespeare a lot of material, and boy did he knock it out of the park.
I am still relatively new to his work, having five years of Shakespeare By The Sea under my belt, and now a few movies (with more on the way), and I still like his famous comedies the best, but now that I am seeing the historical works as well, I am finding them most impressive.
The English actors and actresses all seem to have that history in their blood, and each one embodies their character.
Recommended highly, therefore, and tremendous is "The Hollow Crown".
Now I'm talking backwards like they did in Shakespeare's time. :) But see it, see it, see it. I will continue with reviews of Parts Two and Three in the next two blogs. ////
I drove out to East Canyon in Newhall this afternoon for my hike. Technically it's in Santa Clarita, but it's really Newhall. East Canyon and Rice Canyon start from the same trailhead, located just off The Old Road about two miles west of the top of Balboa. I hadn't planned on a megahike when I left my apartment, but that's what I wound up doing when I got there. I didn't have a time limit as I do on workdays, so I just started walking up the trail. I tried Rice Canyon first and went down about a half mile, past this shady grove that serves as a landmark. The trail was somewhat eroded after that point, only about two feet wide with a substantial cliff going straight down, so I thought "this is far enough" and I turned back to try the East Canyon side. East is not quite as scenic as Rice, but you still see a lot of trees and dried plants, the remnants of flowers. The temp was about 95 today, and it's been a super hot Summer, so there is not a lot of color in the landscape, but there is instead that arid, Summery smell and feel. The shadows contain ghosts, birds and squirrels "skritch" in the brush - then are silent - and the tiny lizards scamper into their holes as you walk past. No one is on the trail but you and the private world of nature, so you keep going if you have the time, and I did.
Trails can be by turns magical or just a bit haunted, maybe slightly ominous ("will a cat jump out of nowhere"?).....but you know one won't. It's just the breeze and the trees making their sounds, the powdered dirt puffing up on the steady climb of the hill as your gaze flickers from sky to ground, and the alternating patterned shadows cast by leaves and branches, and the blazing sunshine out in the open fields that get you thinking this way, that something might be waiting and watching above you on the hill.
It's not so much The Unseen Cat, because you know that never happens, not on these trails.
What it really is, is just the mountains themselves. They house critters and noises and shadows, and none of those things need streets or stores or tv shows or any human normalcy.
So you are in their world, and you keep walking because the more you walk the more you feel a part of it. Back in 2014 and 2015, when Placerita was still open and when I had more free time on workdays, I was very much attuned to the spiritual vibrations of all the various trails. I would go on Hundred Degree Hikes and tune in to all the phenomena.
At any rate, I'm still in decent enough shape to do a four mile roundtrip hike, as I did at East Canyon today. As I ascended the trail, I thought "y'know, this has got to be right behind the mountain where Mission Point is located". The Old Road runs along the back of the Santa Susana Mountains. I went up on the East Canyon trail for almost two miles and got close to the top of the mountain, but then I was getting a little tired and didn't know where the trail would end, so I turned back.
When I got home, I did some Googling (do I ever do some Googling, or what?), and I discovered exactly what I had suspected : that if you keep going on the East Canyon trail, you will eventually arrive at Mission Point, on the San Fernando Valley side. The total milage, one way, according to Modern Hiker, is 4.86 miles. I would have had to do almost three more miles to get there, but one day I will do it, just to say that I went over the top of the Santa Susana Mountains and into the Valley from Santa Clarita. The Unseen but Suspected Cat will not follow me but the sounds will still surround me.
East Canyon has it's own vibe, best experienced in the Summer when the leaves are dry and golden.
Maybe I will see you there, if not in person then for certain in spirit. ////
Elizabeth, I see that a couple of cats were in the picture today. :)
Your black kitty looks a lot lot our own (at Pearl's), except that your's appears to have a small patch of white on his/her tummy. Your grey striped kitty seems to be more of the kick-back type, ready for a snooze after enjoying a piece of pizza...or maybe two.
That's probably why there are two pizza boxes in the picture. Hungry cats. And come to think of it, that's probably why the black kitty was watching you....
"Hey, Elizabeth......did the Pizza Man get here yet"?
At Pearl's we have the black kitty, who has lived with us since 2014. She is still semi-feral and lives outside. And then we have two neighbor cats who never go home because I feed them.
I'm sorry but I can't resist, and it's okay because they live across the street. I guess their owners don't pay much attention to them, so they come over to Pearl's house.
I think of animals as "people", meaning that all are individuals and never just an "it".
The Spirit of The Kobedog lives on, and I can feel him just as I feel the intuited things on the hiking trail, and at Pearl's, he would insist on pizza for everyone - especially for himself.
That's all for tonight. See you in church in the morning. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
No comments:
Post a Comment